Peretti's "Monster", with Spoilers

I stand corrected: Frank Peretti has not abandoned his faith in his writing.

Old Testament Reference
In his "Monster", the character, Beck, names her Bigfoot caretakers - Jacob, Leah, Rachel, and Reuben based on the relationship the Old Testament Jacob interacted with his two wives and his first born son.

Evolution vs Creation
Later, the reader learns that another character, Cap, has recently lost his job as a prestigious scientist at a university because he refused to believe that DNA sequence mutations in chimpanzees could create a human being. His former colleague clung to that belief so firmly that he moved his lab deep in the Idaho forest to continue his experiments - most of his mutated chimps were dead or so malformed, their lifespan would not last much longer. Only one of his experiments showed any progress - the monster.

Bigfoot or the Monster
It was this monsterous creature, and not the bigfoot creatures killed three humans and one bigfoot child. The Bigfoot creatures served as Beck's protectors. Rachel viewed Beck as her surrogate daughter. In their short time together, the Bigfoot creatures and human learned to co-exist.

Denouement
The story ends in mostly a "happily ever after" format. The two protagonistic couples survive, the monster is killed, and the scientist who created the monster is shot. The remaining bigfoot family of Rachel, Leah, Jacob, and Reuben escape back into the forest unharmed back to their hum-drum lives.

Christian Fiction
Most Christian authors are blatant in their inclusion of Christian faith in the stories. For the most part, you will find didactic (or teaching) books written by Max Lucado. Another genre is Christian fiction like Tim LaHaye's Left Behind. I'm not sure which would be an accurate desciptor for Peretti's writing. It is fiction with casual Christian references. And, he isn't the only author who employs this style of writing.

Christian Reading Recommendations
As many so-called Christian denominations exist in this world, so are the opinions of what Christians should read, what Christian books non-believers should read, and what so-called Christian books should be ostracized.

My opinion, strictly of Frank Peretti, is he is an author worth reading whether you consider yourself a Christian or not. Like my other favorite fictional author, Richard North Patterson, the details in Peretti's stories are realistic. These two authors admit to doing their research, consulting with other experts in the field of the story topic before writing their stories. Granted, one of Peretti's first stories was blatantly Christian, his subsequent stories were not. Obviously, I would certainly not recommend any of Peretti's thrillers as child-level reading: although, he has created a children's series. But, I would recommend any books of Frank Peretti dating back 15 years or more to anyone who enjoys thrillers. Just be aware that Peretti's thrillers come with a little extra!